Homeschool Mother's Journal - Week 36

In my life this week......

I hate the second week of the month.  All I do is live in our van.  I am always going somewhere.  This week was no different than last month, maybe even a little crazier.  Joe took Monday off from work so he could go with us to Chuck E Cheese on Monday.  A friend of ours plans this fun trip every year.  We actually got Brayden out of the house with minimal fuss.  Minimal fuss there, but oh WOW he definitely got overwhelmed.  He screamed and screamed and screamed most of the trip home.  You could tell he was in full sensory overload.  But they had fun for most of the trip.

Working on some fun projects with our Special Olympics Parent Club.  We are hosting an indoor garage sale to raise money for the cheerleaders to go to Competition.  We are also planning a Bowl-for-the-Athletes in April to raise money for annual events.  It's the first one we are holding, so nervous and excited all at the same time.

I am way behind on my training for the 5K.  Something always seems to happen.  Either too cold to run outside or when I do get a chance to attempt to train something comes up with one of the kids.  That is what has happened all week.  Every day there has been something causing me to drive long distances or the kids just seem to suck out all my energy and thinking skills.  I am hoping to get back on track next week.

In our homeschool this week.....

The second week of the month means lots of non-traditional schoolwork.  We usually are finishing up World Travelers Club projects.  Lydia has zoo class, and this week we had our fun trip to Chuck E Cheese.  We also had an errand thrown in on Tuesday and Dr. appts tomorrow for the boys.  So we have been watching documentaries and lots of Curiosity Quest on new topics we want to learn about.  Have you ever watched that show!?!?!  We all really like it and learn new stuff all the time!

Starting next week we will be changing things up quite.  I have finally decided to start more Five in a Row activities (again) with the girls.  Caty has been home more because of her not feeling well, and Lydia has more fun doing the activities with her sister around too.  So it will be nice to do those activities when she is home not feeling well and on her days off from the preschool.  She only has a couple more months left of the preschool thing anyway.

We are also going to start a new section of Science.  We are going to start Chemistry and Physics.  Joey has requested that after working on Life Science for over a year, we switch things up a bit.  The girls love the idea, so here we go.

Places we are going and seeing....

We had plenty of outings this week.  There was a Chuck E Cheese party, Zoo Class, Joey had a BBall game, World Travelers Club, errands with Grandma and of course Dr. appts for the boys.  I felt like I was passing myself several times.  Not to mention the couple of times I had to pick donation items up for the Special Olympics Garage Sale.  Very busy!

Things I'm working on.....

Lots of little Special Olympic projects that add up into very large projects.  Lots of reviews to finish up in the next week.  Trying to clean up (ok....not just clean up...but declutter the house).  I am still working on the 31 Days to Clean, but it's taking me a bit longer to finish some of the little projects.  It has just been rather nuts here.  Joe is having a gout attack, so that is causing a bit more work this week.  He hasn't been able to put any weight on his foot.  So I trying to get him taken care of with as many home remedies as I can find to keep him off steroids.  They are finally starting to work.  He can walk some this morning without crutches.  Did I mention he will not get much beer ever again??  We avoid and limit most things that can cause the acid build-up, but didn't think about beer.  I had bought him some last week, and he was drinking a bottle a day. And that is the only change in his diet and activity that we read could have caused it.

I'm reading....

Still working on Hunger Games.  I actually got to read 2 pages the other day.



I'm cooking.....

I am getting braver about allergen cooking.  I have been attempting baking more foods.  We had a couple more recipes to try last week, but I ran out of time.  So next week we will be attempting gluten free fried bread that I found to go with our New Mexico project.  I made mini-meatloaf patties this week that I served with melted cheese and potatoes.  They were yummy.  I made lots of homemade food last week for our Super Bowl buffet.  Chicken fingers, caramel corn, shrimp with homemade cocktail sauce, etc.  I also found a way to make a yummy sweet style chex mix that Joe is enjoying also.  I also am very proud to say I figured out a gluten-free dumpling for my chicken and dumplings.  I can't say how proud I was that they were the weight of golf balls!!!  And the leftovers from that were even tastier!!!

What's not working for us....

The second week of each month.  Too much stuff going on.  But the end of Basketball season is almost here.  Sad, but frees up a little bit of time for us.  May have to make some adjustments to our schedule next year.  But the zoo is the one that caused the major issue when they changed the dates of their classes on us.  What a pain that became!  But Lydia enjoys that class way too much.  And she is going to be our Vet that designs Cat clothes!  What a career choice!

A photo from the week....

Our Sunday buffet.

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